Russian warplanes intercepted by Nato just hours after Putin's fresh NUKE threat to West

Nato yesterday confirmed two French Mirage 2000-5s intercepted a Russian SU-30-M aircraft over the Baltic Sea.

The French fighters were almost immediately re-tasked to a new mission, where they apprehended a Russian AN-72 flying in international airspace north of Poland.

The Kremlin last month alleged that Nato had scrambled warplanes to confront two Russian missile carriers patrolling the Norwegian Sea.

Moscow looked to taunt the West by launching two TU-95MS planes to patrol the region.

The planes were escorted by a group of Su35S aircraft.

Nato claimed air forces across Europe scrambled more than 300 times to intercept Russian military aircraft approaching Alliance airspace last year.

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Addressing the Federal Assembly in Moscow, Putin had issued a fresh threat against Nato and the West.

He said: "They, NATO and America, are active in other parts of the world, of course, and they continue to lie there, to deceive.

"They are preparing to strike our territory and, using the best possible forces, the most effective forces to do so.

"But we remember the fate of those who try to invade our territory and of course their fate will be much more tragic than anything we could face."

He added: "They should eventually realise that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory.

"Everything that the West comes up with creates the real threat of a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and thus the destruction of civilisation."

The Russian President was seemingly firing back after French counterpart Emmanuel Macron suggested European troops could step foot into Ukraine.

Putin's allies warned European troops would suffer the same fate as Napoleon Bonaparte's Grande Armee whose 1812 invasion of Russia ended in death and defeat.